But some doctors are beginning to wonder if video games can play a role in making kids healthier by getting them to move more.

Tom Robinson, a pediatric medical researcher from Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center, is among a group of doctors who see the potential of using video games to get kids off the couch and on their feet.

“People don’t respond to messaging about obesity, diabetes or risk for cardiovascular disease,” he said. “They do respond to fun, taste, curiosity, challenge, peer and parent acceptance these things are built into video games.”

Robinson and Dr. Kristine Madsen, a pediatrician specializing in obesity research at the University of California, San Francisco, were presenters at last week’s Child Obesity Conference in Los Angeles.

“Kids are tech-savvy,” Madsen said. “There’s a built-in motivation for kids to play . (Studies show that video games) can transform sedentary to active behavior.”

Kids like video games because – and this should be no surprise to parents – they are addictive.

“Research shows that dopamine is released in the brain (while playing video games) similar to other addictive behaviors,” Madsen said. (Dopamine is a hormone that tells the brain when something feels good.)

What’s particularly encouraging is that some games have tremendous calorie-burning potential.

“You need to account for both,” Madsen said. “The nutrition environment may be more important than the physical activity the kid gets.”

Video games aside, the strongest predictor of a child’s level of physical activity was not whether he or she enjoyed it, or even whether the child had the skills necessary to play the sport or activity. The most important piece, it turns out, is parental modeling.

“Parental modeling is critical, especially for girls,” Madsen said.

In other words: Parents, if you want your kids to be more active, the right video game might work in the short term but ultimately what you do will have a bigger impact on your child’s activity level.

“We need to take a whole-child approach,” Madsen said. “Physical activity is linked (to improved health), but what about psychological well-being? The goal is healthy bodies, as well as healthy minds and relationships.”

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